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Diana Rivera, 34, "filed fraudulent unemployment insurance claims for 10 consecutive weeks between March 10 and May 18, 2012 to receive unemployment benefits in the amount of $6,792 to which she was not entitled," acting state Attorney General John J. Hoffman said Tuesday.
Also charged was Siobhan Austin, 40, of Irvington, a carrier technician who worked out of Paramus.
Hoffman said Austin filed fraudulent unemployment insurance claims between Sept. 10, 2011 and Nov. 29, 2013, to receive unemployment benefits in the amount of $6,629.
All told, the nine defendants swindled nearly $50,000, in amounts ranging from $2,000 to nearly $9,000, from 2010 through this year, Hoffman said.
The Division of Criminal Justice Specialized Crimes Bureau obtained nine separate state grand jury indictments over the past month charging each of them with third-degree theft by deception, he said.
The cases were referred to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office by the U.S. Postal Service Office of the Inspector General and the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Inspector General, Hoffman said.
The agencies "audited New Jersey Department of Labor unemployment insurance claim records against payroll records for the U.S. Postal Service to identify postal workers who fraudulently collected benefits in New Jersey," he said.
“Unemployment insurance provides a financial safety net for New Jersey workers when they fall on hard times," Hoffman said. “By aggressively prosecuting these defendants, we send a strong deterrent message to make others think twice about filing false claims.”
"It's not like they lied just once," DCJ Director Elie Honig added. They "repeated their fraud over and over again to keep the stolen benefits flowing.”
The other defendants:
IIvory Downey, 41, of East Orange;
Mikikia C. Johnson, 40, of Jersey City;
Gloria Long, 64, of Jersey City;
Tea Graham-Gates, 45, of Jersey City;
Aaron J. Buie, 71, of Piscataway;
Eboni M. Bush, 35, of Plainfield;
Atalaya C. Haskins, 26.
All of the defendants were former Postal Services employees except from Austin and Haskins, who were suspended during the investigation, Hoffman said.
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